1268: Alternate Universe

Title text: As best as I can tell, I was transported here from Earth Prime sometime in the late 1990s. Your universe is identical in every way, except for the lobster thing and the thing where some of you occasionally change your clocks for some reason.

Randall is trying to make the point that eating lobsters is as weird as eating spiders. Crustaceans and arachnids are both arthropods, members of the same phylum, so his comparison isn't too far off. Then again, humans are in the same phylum (chordates) as sea squirts, so any perceived similarities are not exactly rooted in a close biological relationship. In addition, lobsters were once considered the "cockroaches of the sea", and a captain trying to feed his crew with lobster would often be seen as cruel. On the other side, cooked tarantula spiders are considered a delicacy in Cambodia.

"Earth Prime" means the original Earth in a multiverse, a multitude of universes. Earth Prime is typically the Earth on which the narrative begins, simply out of convenience. The title text also references changing clocks to and from Daylight Saving Time (DST), which Randall has made clear he is not a fan of and he has made fun of it in several comics. Randall thinks he originally came from another Earth (Earth Prime) to our Earth in the late 1990s (so he had been here for about 15 years at the time of this comic in 2013). Earth Prime only differs from the Earth where he currently lives, (together with the rest of us), on the lobster thing and then also on DST - where some of you occasionally change your clocks for some reason. The reason seems to elude Randall though.

It's worth note that one objection to eating spiders, crickets, roaches, and ants can be that they are generally eaten whole, with guts, feces, and chiton devoured indiscriminately, whereas many people eat only the actual muscles of the lobster, the same as one would any vertebrate.

The use of "Earth Prime", and the mention of the late 1990s, suggest that Randall may be referring to the TV show Sliders which aired around that time, which was about a group of people who randomly "slid" between alternate universes.

Imagine you were transported to an alternate universe just like your own, except people occasionally ate spiders.

You can't convince anyone this is weird.

[Megan is holding a very large spider, with a similar spider before her on the ground, and Cueball is standing behind her, leaning away with his hands out to each side shocked, as shown with three small lines going out from his head.]

Discussion

This reminds me of that conspiracy theorist thing where a bunch of people thought that New Zealand was, like, to the west or north of Australia (I can't quite remember), only to check on a map and see it was definitely to the east... And as such convinced themselves that they somehow travelled to an alternate version of Earth were everything was basically the same except NZ was in a new place. Anyone else remember/know about those guys?
EDIT: Found one of 'em, so hopefully I sound less crazy (than them): NZ conspiracy nut in action67.71.33.122 01:29, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

I haven't heard of the NZ thing (I live in Australia and am a geologist, so it just sounds like the normal sorts of jokes we make about American's geographical ignorance...), but there is a bit of internet folklore/urban myth that many of us originate from a parallel universe in which The Berenstain Bears are called The Berenstein Bears. I know I am from this particular universe because IT WAS TOTALLY BERENSTEIN WHEN I WAS LITTLE. YOU'RE ALL LIVING A LIE!!! I CAN'T GET HOME!!!! *breaks down in tears* 108.162.249.155 02:20, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Honestly never heard/seen it spelled -stain. Has the pronunciation changed in this universe as well? 108.162.237.166 06:46, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Pronunciation is not as simple as you believe. Do you pronounce "-stein" to rhyme with "mine", "Maine", or "mean"? Do you pronounce the "s" as "sch" or just a soft english s? Which accent do you use when you pronounce it one of those ways? How much emphasis do you put on the final syllable - is it more like it rhymes with "men"? Of course we're talking about a series of books, so remembered pronunciation, as a child, is in line with how you read it. Of course the bigger lesson here is that you are simply a native of the current universe. 108.162.250.158 01:04, 11 May 2016 (UTC)

I thought Earth Prime was a reference to Sliders... but Wikipedia says it's been used much more widely. Saibot84 (talk) 04:40, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Wait, wait ... only "some of you" change your clocks? In the universe I just came from, MOST of them changed their clocks at unsynchronized times for no good reason anyone has ever been able to demonstrate. Only the Third World along with Hawaii and Saskatchewan were holdouts where I came from. 72.68.9.56 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Neither India nor China are having this obscure idea of occasionally changing their clocks for no obvious reasons. So even "most" might be a bit of a stretch. Pmakholm (talk)

Sure they do -- they're just more occasional about it than others! China last did it in '91, and India in '45. 72.68.9.56 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Neither does Indonesia. Apparently, according to this map, neither does a good deal of the world (particularly those near equator) as well. Goldstein-Izayoi (talk) 13:57, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Iceland (definitely NOT Third World) does not changes its clocks. It remains on GMT throughout the year, despite being way west of the Greenwich Meridian 95.131.110.106 09:53, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Reminds me of this bit from a Dave Barry column: "I personally see no significant difference between a lobster and, say, a giant Madagascar hissing cockroach, which is a type of cockroach that grows to approximately the size of William Howard Taft (1857-1930). If a group of diners were sitting in a nice restaurant, and the waiter were to bring them each a freshly killed, steaming-hot Madagascar hissing cockroach, they would not put on silly bibs and eat it with butter. No, they would run, retching, directly from the restaurant to the All-Nite Drive-Thru Lawsuit Center." SteveMB (talk) 10:46, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Personally, I don't think spiders to lobsters is a good comparison. Spiders are carnivores, while lobsters are carrion eaters. Personally, I would never want to eat a carrion eater. (Of course, I would never want to eat a spider either, but that's different...) --Divad27182 (talk) 13:53, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I always compared Lobster to cockroaches. But, maybe calling them "The cockroaches of the sea" was just me. --Jeff (talk) 16:22, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

On this one episode of Game Grumps on of the guys on that show mentioned some comedian or something making a comment along the lines of "Realizing you really are getting old is like seeing a teenager eat a spider like it's nothing. You can't explain to him why it's wrong, you just know it is, but his generation doesn't get why it isn't okay." That was the first thing I thought of when I saw read this, does anyone know who said this? 74.110.143.25 21:42, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I read: "where people occasionally ARE spiders"!
...and though Megan was about to kiss her spider boyfriend. 205.151.118.100 00:41, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Can someone explain why occasionally eating spiders is weird? The universe that I come from has people eating on average 8 spiders a year while sleeping, though I can't seem to find a source of that information on this universe's Internet. Spiders being not okay to eat occasionally and the Internet failing me must surely be signs I'm in a parallel universe. --68.97.21.122 03:32, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Somewhere I saw that the 8 spiders a year is probably low estimate :-). (Other sites insists its urban legend, but seriously, how would you prove this?) But no matter what you think about spiders opinion on mouth as possible home, I would say it only counts when you eat spider deliberately. -- Hkmaly (talk) 09:28, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

HaHaHa i'm from Israel and this comic is about us! according to jewish diatery rules, spiders and lobsters are both forbidden (only one Arthropod is allowd - Locust). We also had a mix-up with our clock because we changed the date without telling Apple and Google, so the smartphones had to be switched manually. 84.229.22.212 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Really? I'm not sure it's about Israel. I think it's about the ridiculousness of eating lobsters, as they are similar to spiders, and eating spiders is "disgusting", while eating lobsters is "normal". I'm a vegetarian, so I don't eat any arthropods. 108.162.216.62 17:53, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

I get why people might dislike eating lobster (and/or spiders) but I don't get why it would seem rational to consider it the same thing when they are quite physically distinct. -Pennpenn 108.162.249.205 00:55, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

I don't really get this comic... I get that eating lobster is weird, but spiders are delicious. It's hard to convice people that it isn't weird to eat spiders... 108.162.241.124 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Howard Nemerov offers this take on lobsters awaiting purchase in a supermarket: "...the beauty of strangeness marks/These creatures, who move (when they do)/With a slow, vague wavering of claws... We inlanders, buying our needful food,/Pause over these slow, gigantic spiders/ That spin not. We pause and are bemused..." From the poem "Lobsters" in "The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov."Npsych (talk)

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